1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a system and method for disassembling used vehicles to recover usable parts and for inventorying and warehousing the recovered parts.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The used vehicle parts industry, while significant in terms of employment figures and sales volume (Department of Commerce, The Auto Wrecking/Dismantling Industry (1968)), has not been the subject of any significant rationalization scheme. It operates at the level of a "junkyard," a rather disorganized and typically small operation. These conditions have persisted despite the important role of this industry in keeping available parts for older vehicles which are no longer manufactured, in providing a less expensive alternative to the purchase of new replacement parts for newer vehicles and in holding insurance costs down by allowing repair of wrecked vehicles with equivalent old, rather than new, parts. Often an insurance company will specify that only used parts can be employed in a repair job for which it must pay. Such parts can only be obtained by dismantling a discarded vehicle identical or similar to the one to be repaired.
The used vehicle parts industry has a potential role in the growing area of recycling and energy and resource conservation, since it promotes reuse of serviceable used parts and avoids the energy and resource costs of new manufacture. An efficient and rationalized used parts industry could also lead to the disappearance of junkyards where rusting vehicle hulks lie, an idle resource and an unpleasant sight.
The present "junkyard" system for disassembly of used vehicles and recovery of their parts, fails to serve the above-stated goals or serves them inefficiently, at best. The typical junkyard stores complete or partially dismantled hulks of discarded vehicles with no particular organization; reusable parts are not systematically reclaimed and inventoried. Accordingly, the existence and potential usefulness of the parts available in the stored hulks is largely unknown.